It is exceptionally difficult for a fantasy film to get any serious
respect from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Sure,
there are wins for makeup and special effects and once in awhile
production design, and there is the occasional nomination for Best
Director or even Best Picture, but victory is rare. So when a movie
that is pretty much the epitome of epic fantasy like “Lord of the
Rings: The Return of the King” wins 11 Oscars, including Best Picture,
Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (and, for audiophiles, Best
Sound, Best Score by Howard Shore and Best Song), it means that a lot
of tough skeptics were won over – which in turn means that, yes, this
is a terrific movie.

In fact, “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” is one of the best
movies ever made, in the fantasy genre, the epic genre and/or any other
genre (the Oscars are a great acknowledgement, but lack of awards
wouldn’t change the film’s quality).

Look up “epic” in the dictionary and you’ll find a definition that
handily fits both J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy of
books and director/co-screenwriter Peter Jackson’s film adaptations of
them. “The Return of the King,” the third and final installment
(following 2001’s “The Fellowship of the Ring” and 2002’s “The Two
Towers”) is a thundering achievement, both figuratively and literally.
Want to experience sights and sounds that will just about convince you
that you really are on an otherworldly battlefield, where the ground
shakes from the clash of thousands upon thousands of humans and orcs?
Here you are – and if that were all “Return” delivered, it would still
be one hell of a movie. However, Jackson and his remarkable team –
including fellow screenplay adapters Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens,
cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, composer Shore, top-flight special
effects artists and a collection of terrific actors – aren’t content to
leave it at that. “Return of the King,” for all its fantasy and
larger-than-life trappings, has as much (indeed, often more) emotional
realism as any real-history-based cinematic tale.

As with the two earlier “Rings” films, “Return of the King” comes to
DVD first in a two-disc edition, with the theatrical cut of the film on
one disc and a collection of documentaries and featurettes on the
other. A special extended version with various commentaries and many
more special features is due out later in the year, so this edition is
for those who a) can’t wait and b) want to re-experience the theatrical
version without the changed rhythms of a longer, different cut.

For anybody who has somehow missed the books, the first two movies and
all the attendant publicity – surely some lonely souls somewhere fit
this description, though there can’t be many – “The Lord of the Rings”
takes place in a realm called Middle Earth, populated by humans, elves,
dwarves and small, mostly unadventurous folks called hobbits or
halflings, who until now have kept to themselves. However, an evil
entity known as Sauron means to overwhelm Middle Earth by means of a
magical talisman, the Ring, which is currently in the custody of the
hobbit Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood). Frodo, unheroic as he believes
himself to be, has committed himself to destroying the Ring by the only
means possible – throwing it into the fires of the volcanic Mount Doom,
where it was forged. Mount Doom is in Sauron’s stronghold, the land of
Mordor, which is swarming with demonic orcs and various monsters, all
under the Dark Lord’s sway. By the time of “Return of the King,”
Frodo’s only companions are his loyal friend and fellow hobbit Samwise
(Sean Astin) and Gollum (an amazing amalgamation of CGI and a
performance by actor Andy Serkis), the Ring’s much-deteriorated and
fairly crazed former keeper, who offers to lead the hobbits to Mount
Doom but schemes to reclaim the “precious” object for himself through
treachery.

Of the original band who set out with Frodo in “Fellowship,” one,
Boromir (Sean Bean), is dead, leaving his thoughtful, abashed brother
Faramir (David Wenham) to deal with their father, the grief-maddened
Steward of Gondor (John Noble). Human Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) has
finally accepted his destiny as the heir to the throne of Gondor –
i.e., king of most of Middle Earth – should he survive the wars, while
the wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen), the elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom), the
dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies) and hobbits Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and
Pippin (Billy Boyd) are all engulfed in some of the most overwhelming
battles to ever hit the screen.

The clash of armies here inspires true awe – in Chapter 28 and onward,
there are shots of hundreds of thousands of human and demonic soldiers
charging each other by the battalion that have a surging power that
leaves your jaw in your lap. It looks physically real, even though
logic (and both massive publicity and the featurettes) tells us that
most of it was actually created in a computer. For the most part, the
interactions between live players and environments and elements that
exist only as pixels is seamless, with Gollum a real master stroke of
collaboration between performer Serkis and the effects team. Greenish
ghosts scouring the landscape in Chapter 40 may strike some viewers as
a bit artificial – the visuals don’t have the dimensionality of the
rest of the effects – but this is a nitpick.

The sounds and sights here are extraordinary. If you don’t have a
world-class subwoofer, Treebeard’s deep rumbling voice may be a bit
congestive in Chapter 3, but the sound and picture quality on this
release is overall exquisite. In Chapter 4, there is a wonderful,
enveloping discrete effect as cheers erupt around us in a banquet hall
and in Chapter 6, we are surrounded by a supernaturally menacing roar
as Pippin attracts the attention of Sauron. In Chapter 9, Gandalf and
Pippin come charging out of the right rear on horseback, aurally riding
straight past us and into the mains. A battle in Chapter 13 at a
garrison on the water’s edge has splashes, footfalls, roars, sword
strikes, growls and even singular human breaths placed specifically
throughout the environment as the melee becomes ever more brutal.
Chapter 14 has a visually beautiful sequence as mountaintops light up
one by one with signal fires. Chapter 16 has the painful cries of the
monstrous flying Nazgul circling the speaker system, convincing us that
tortured monsters are all around in an example of brilliant fantasy
sound design – the beasts seem real. Chapter 20 combines some soulful,
plaintive onscreen singing by Boyd with stark music, horses’ hooves and
arrows flying for a melancholy prelude to battle. Chapter 26 shows us
the orcs on the march before all hell breaks loose. Chapter 29 tears us
away from the battle and astonishingly proves equally engrossing, with
squishy, scuttling sounds and threatening roars sneaking up on us from
all sides as Frodo battles a fast-moving giant spiderlike creature.
Chapter 37 has another melee sequence that is so all-encompassing that
there is nothing to do but watch in awe – discrete strikes, roars,
screams, punches, falls and other combat sounds are everywhere and the
screen is literally filled with battling men, orcs, giant beasts and
weapons. Chapter 59 brings back vivid colors not seen so brightly since
the beginning of “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

Shore’s score is aptly powerful and beautiful, with a final song, “Into
the West,” performed by Annie Lennox (co-written by Shore, Lennox and
screenwriter Walsh), that makes it well worth sitting through the
Chapter 60 closing credits, which are gorgeously illustrated by
sketches of the cast, creatures and realms that we have been immersed
in for the past few hours – or years, depending on when one feels the
viewing experience begins.

For all its spectacle and technical expertise, “Return” has marvelous,
memorable heart. Wood is profoundly affecting as the troubled,
exhausted Frodo and Mortensen is an icon of determination, but the
biggest standouts are Astin’s innocent and ardently caring Sam and
Boyd’s Pippin, who carries on admirably in the face of his own terror.
Miranda Otto as a noblewoman whose resolve to join the fight has a
surprising consequence and Bernard Hill as her kingly uncle both have
convincing regal bearing and human passion.

The supplements on the second disc are very agreeable, although there
is some overlap of material in the three long documentaries and even
the seven shorter pieces originally made for lordoftherings.net. It is
fun to see footage from Jackson’s original pitch presentation in the
“Filmmaker’s Journey” segment and all of the documentaries have some
gorgeous artwork from various illustrators’ takes on Tolkien’s prose.

“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” absolutely transports
us to another world, makes us believe in and care about what we see
there and returns us to our own lives feeling that we’ve actually been
somewhere else for awhile, doing something that matters. It provides
pretty much everything that can be asked of a motion picture
experience, and then some.